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UK Hip Hop/Grime

Started by alan nagsworth, September 20, 2007, 11:23:03 AM

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Utter Shit

Example is my big thing at the moment, he combines witty and insightful lyrics with great samples. The tracks I would recommend most are "One Night", "So Many Roads", "I Don't Want To" and "You Can't Rap". He's an excellent storyteller as well, "One Night" is quite a sweet story really. The downside is a lot of his tracks sound similar, I think mainly because they use similar drums and bassline styles throughout.

As has already been mentioned, Akala's "Shakespeare" is a fantastic and groundbreaking track, ripping off Tomcraft's electro track "Loneliness" (you'll know it if you hear it) almost wholesale, I'm not sure if the speed has even been changed, I suspect it's only been tampered with to add a hip-hop beat.

Kano is the man...the new album was a letdown, but he's still got a lot of stuff for newcomers to enjoy, and he's fairly eclectic. "Typical Me" is about as hyped a track as you'll ever hear, with a heavy guitar riff sampled throughout alongside an overbearing but strangely suited drum loop. His new single alongside Craig David is a decent slice of US Hip-Hop in terms of the beat, it's going to be huge in clubs (it's already getting a lot of play)...off his old album, I'd recommend also "Nite Nite" (cheesy but good) and "Sometimes", while the new album has a couple of low-key tracks that work well..."Fightin' The Nation", "This Is My Life" and "Sleep Tight" are the standout tracks.

Where grime is concerned...to be honest, I can't really be arsed with it, there's not enough good stuff to make wading through the reams of shite worthwhile. What I will say is that "Forward" by Lethal Bizzle has been banned from being played in most clubs in London, and with good reason. If you were ever going to start a riot in a club, this would probably be the track to kick it off.

I should mention quickly, a small-time internet sensation called Mr. Dialysis is worth a listen...ignore the fact that he looks like a 10-year old and a twat, and his stuff is pretty good, he's very talented for his age. Writes, performs and produces all his stuff himself, although the production isn't much more than sampling hugely from well-known tracks and adding basic drum loops. Go on his MySpace and listen to "It's Just Normal", that's the best track he's done IMO...his flow is pretty good. Nothing special but there's a lot of potential there.

Plan B is another one who is exceptionally talented. Crude, but a very good storyteller (he steals Nas' 'telling a story backwards' schtick on "Sick 2 Def" but it works well and the flow is mad...on that track he's about as close to an English Eminem as you'll ever get) and unlike Lauryn Hill the acoustic style has just enough interest about it to not take away from the lyricism. I'd recommend also "Suzanne" (heartbreaking) and "Charmaine" (shocking, if the ending is a little predictable).

I'm not big into Roll Deep at all, but they have a couple of really enjoyable tracks amidst the rubbish - "Badman" and "Penpals" are worth listening to, particularly the latter which combines a dark, eerie beat with vaguely 'positive' lyrics about the danger of guns...although they all sound pretty aggressive when talking about it.

Surprised that there's been no mention of the Mitchell Brothers in here as yet (unless I missed it?). Part of Mike Skinner's label, they have beats made by him but with actual rappers on them instead of Skinner's talk-rhyming stuff. Lyrically and flow-wise they're nothing special, but they're good enough to do justice to the mostly-excellent beats from Skinner, who really has grown into a top producer IMO. "Alone With The TV", "Don't Try This At Home", "She's Got It All Wrong" and the hilarious "Routine Check" (featuring a couple of guest verses from Kano and Skinner) are great fun.

I can't go much deeper than that...Blak Twang's "Kik Off" album is enjoyable, Klashnekoff has plenty of worthwhile stuff although I find him a little samey...Skinnyman's "Council Estate Of Mind" is a minor classic and another grime track I've just remembered is SLK's "Hype Hype"...not great, but enjoyable enough and will give you an idea of whether you'll like grime or not...it's about as accessible grime music as you can get - if you don't like that, chances are you'll hate grime.

chand

Quote from: Utter Shit on October 04, 2007, 12:47:30 AMPlan B is another one who is exceptionally talented. Crude, but a very good storyteller (he steals Nas' 'telling a story backwards' schtick on "Sick 2 Def" but it works well and the flow is mad...on that track he's about as close to an English Eminem as you'll ever get) and unlike Lauryn Hill the acoustic style has just enough interest about it to not take away from the lyricism. I'd recommend also "Suzanne" (heartbreaking) and "Charmaine" (shocking, if the ending is a little predictable).

Heh, well Plan B doesn't conceal the Nas borrowing there. 'Sick 2 Def' is magnificent, the first time I heard it it really smacked me in the face, it's totally compelling and he's really lyrically dextrous on it. That said, I found his album as a whole pretty hard going; it's fairly relentlessly grim and it got a bit wearying for me after a while. Lot of potential for improved future releases though.

Thanks to whoever it was that mentioned Virus Syndicate by the way, I picked up their record and it's excellent.

Utter Shit

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ECR5OW4F

A preview of a guy I know called Koast, his new album "The Koast Is Clear" which is out shortly.